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Re: Translation exercise done in Korahamla

From:Roger Mills <romilly@...>
Date:Saturday, November 23, 2002, 23:01
Amanda Babcock wrote:

> > A documentary on the Ottoman sultan Suleiman briefly mentioned a poem > > he wrote in which he speaks of ruling for a long time until a hostile > > wind should come. Inspired by "hostile wind", I wondered how I could > > render in Korahamla "The wind now blowing hates you who have ruled > > for so long". >
Hmm, complicated in Kash, since the subj. NP _might by some_ be considered too "heavy", and the obj. NP definitely is. A basic version would be [subj] [obj.pronoun] [verb] or [obj.pron.] [verb] [ subj]-- yanga te yaterik ~ te yaterik yanga 'the wind hates you' A possibility: yanga mundu-mundruk te yaterik 'the hostile wind hates you' (temporary redup. of mundruk 'to oppose (with hostility)') The more lit. translation is OK, but some would frown on the too-lengthy rel. clause-- yanga re tanju yamiri te yaterik 'the wind that now blows hates you'-- and would invert: te yaterik yanga re tanju yamiri. The main problem is the rel.clause after 'you'; NOTHING can intervene between the obj.pronoun and the verb, and obj.pronouns can't come after the verb. So we must either create a subordinate clause-- yanga re tanju yamiri te yaterik, ombi sambat pandaçu mende havetrita '...because so-much long-time PERF you-rule or else turn the obj.NP into a topic: hate re sambat pandaçu mende vetrita, te yaterik yanga re tanju yamiri you(dat)....... you(dat)............. -- which, as a poetic line, violates a few metrical rules but isn't too bad-- háte re sámbat pandáçu ménde vetríta // te yatérik yánga re tánju yamíri (we could eliminate _mende_, but _yanga_ still violates meter) Since it's poetry, the topic could be postposed as a resumptive, emphatic clause-- yanga re tanju yamiri te yaterik-- haté re sambat pandaçu etc. 'the wind now blowing hates you-- _you_ who for so long .......' Yet another, a little elliptical but possibly more native, and perfect meter: yanga yarata yamiri, te terik, haté re pandaçu vetrita wind it-comes, it-blows, you(dat.) (it-)hates, ....... "A wind will come blowing, that hates you, you who long-time rule" yánga yaráta yamíri te térik haté re pandáçu vetríta (Sorry to go on at such length; it's a problem in the grammar I haven't worked out well.)